[Tutorial] Set Up MaxCDN On WordPress Using The Fastest Cache Plugin

Every time we talk about speeding up a WordPress blog, one of the most recommended tips is to set up a CDN (Content Delivery Network). Setting up a CDN for the first time sounds like rocket-science, but really, you can easily set up MaxCDN within a few minutes.

Setting up a Content Delivery Network (MaxCDN in this case) on your blog requires you to do a few things:

Set up a “Pull Zone” from MaxCDN.

Add a CNAME record to your domain.

Set up a CDN linker plugin.

By doing this, your site will be way faster than it was before, as all the files will now be served from the server nearest to your visitors.

Also, your server load will go down by a great extent. Since most WordPress sites are hosted on shared hosting like HostGator, Bluehost, DreamHost, etc., it’s always a good idea to set up a CDN. This will speed up your site’s loading time.

Custom CDN name: Use cdn.domain.com (replace “domain.com” with your domain). You can also use something else instead of “cdn” like files.domain.com.

Label: Give a label to your CDN Zone. This will be useful when you are configuring CDN for multiple sites. Keep it unique to your domain name.

Compression: Put a check mark here.

So by the end, your setup should look like this:

Click on “+Create”.

It will take about 3 minutes to configure the new Pull Zone.

Afterward, the page will refresh automatically to give you a CNAME record which you need to add into your domain manager. You can always get this detail later by clicking on Manage Zones > Pull Zones.

So my final details are:

Additionally, you should click on the “SEO” tab & “Enable” the “Canonical Header” option.

Configure CNAME Settings to Serve CDN Files from Sub-domain:

Now, all you need to do is login to your domain manager, and under your domain DNS management, click on “CNAME” and add a record for cdn.domain.com (or whatever you called it) to point it to the CDN URL. This may sound technical, but it’s quite easy to do, and it will not take more than 5 minutes to finish.

Click on Zone > Pull Zones > Manage in front of the Pull Zone you just created. Add “cdn” or “files” or anything you would like to use for the custom domain.

Click on “Add Record” and now you have successfully added the CNAME record.

If you find it hard to do for your domain registrar, ping your domain’s technical support and ask them to add the CNAME record as provided by MaxCDN.

Since I’m using CloudFlare, my CNAME propagation happened in real-time. In many cases, CNAME updates may take up to 48-72 hours, so you need to wait until your CNAME is propagated. You can check the status of your CNAME record by adding your CNAME here. EX: files.shoutmetech.com

Once the CNAME changes are reflected, we can go ahead and enable CDN in the WordPress Fastest Cache plugin.

Setting up WP Fastest Cache Plugin to use MaxCDN:

We are done setting up a Pull Zone on the MaxCDN dashboard, and we have also updated the CNAME record to use MaxCDN.

Q) What will happen to previously uploaded files? Will all previously uploaded files will be uploaded on the MaxCDN server automatically, or do I need to do something?

A) You set up a Pull Zone, which means MaxCDN will automatically pull all of your content from your server. So there is no uploading to be done.

Q) What will happen if I decide to remove the CDN after a while?

A) If you disable the CDN, there will be no issues. As MaxCDN (when using a Pull Zone) pulls all the data from your server in the background, MaxCDN will be up to date. Although, if you ever edit an already existing file, let’s say replacing an image, the cache will need to be cleared on the CDN in order for the file to update on the CDN. So if you disable the CDN in future, your site will be working like the way it was before, but without the benefits of a CDN.

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"Shouting since 2008"
Harsh Agrawal is the founder & CEO of ShoutDreams, INC.
A blog scientist by mind and a passionate blogger by heart. His blog, ShoutMeLoud receives 1.5 million Pageviews/month and has over 832K subscribers.

COMMENTs ( 18 )

Nice article. To the point. After I had W3 Total Cache give me the white screen on a WP site, I had to remove that and tried a couple of other options but Fastest Cache got the site (lots of images) down to 1.64 secs (from 4.87) so I’m happy with that.

BTW, I think MaxCDN is well worth it. Not only that, they have amazing support (I don’t work for them but use their CDN on a few sites).

Thanks a lot for the tutorial. I have successfully setup MaxCDN on my blog. Can I increase Default Cache Time to 12 month in MaxCDN? As the images, CSS, JS that I have, will never change. Yes I may add more images as I add more posts. But existing ones will be same as usual forever.

I have visited 4 different sites and all have a copy of this post
Though good it is lacking a few details,like letting your new CNAME to propagate
MaxCDN also offer SSL certs and security certificates. A must if you are a seller

Hi,
I just wanted to ask you whether, setting up cdn changes the path of the image files and what do you think whether it would be good for the seo or not?? as search engines will suddenly find the change in the path in so many images, if your site is a big one with lots of images. I am confused. please answer. Thanks.

Really good guide. It helped me a lot because I too have the similar domain cpanel. The only problem I faced was that my CNAME was not activated immediately. So had to contact MaxCDN and they asked to replace off-site url to temporary url (which I will be changing back to cname later :) ). Everything working fine now. Thanks!

Interesting offer by MaxCDN of 1TB, it should suffice any site with avg traffic. However, I feel with proper theme the site loading can be quick, also with little bit of good practices such as loading thumbnails in the article and themes with no background.